By Antti Kautonen
This BMW, too, was shot in the same garage as the VW Caddy and a bunch of my earlier contributions from this town. It’s one of the latest E28:s built or sold, as it has been registered in 1988 while production had already ended in December 1987, as the E34 replaced the E28. Despite being the predecessor and successor, the BMW mid-size saloons couldn’t be more different, the E34 being a step closer to the E32 7-series and the E28 was a far cry from the days of E12 at heart.
This E28 is a 518i, the fuel-injected entry-level version with the M10 engine considered bomb proof. These were certainly a popular choice of 5-series back in the day.
A little online sleuthing brought up an old ad of the car here, and in it the odometer reading was a commendable 362 400 km. It was also mentioned to have a couple of not-important beauty flaws, none of which had any effect on its daily useability. I certainly found the E28 reasonably clean, even if the frozen slush did the lines no favours.
It’s a shame I didn’t hear the E28 running, as the exhaust was quite beefy-looking.
The dark red also suits it fine, and it’s not too common a colour on these. It also had relatively straight chrome bumpers, which really aren’t too common. The ubiquitous bottlecaps are always a nice touch.
When the car was last sold on, the asking price was a meagre 1100 eur. For a cleanish E28 with a valid inspection, it’s not a bad price.
[Images: Copyright 2013 Hooniverse/Antti Kautonen]
I've always much preferred the Euro style bumpers on this era Bimmers over the porch style ones we got here in the States.
Yes, just take a look at the earlier posted 528e to compare handily. Those do stand out.
I know it's crazy, but I've always been fascinated with four-cylinder 5ers.
Me too. Slow down, enjoy the ride.
It looks like it needs front springs.
Those slushsicles are freakin' heavy, man!
You mean fenderbergs?
Ha, I call them wheel well boogers!
One of those cars that looks so terrible in U.S. spec, and so great in Euro-spec. The dark red colour does wonders for it, as well.
I've always liked these, but after seeing Matt Damon steal one in The Bourne Identity – or was it The Bourne Supremacy? – I've had a serious crush on them. Now if only I could find a Euro-spec one here for the equivalent of 1,100 Euros…